Our go-to family outing: the Spectrum

When the weather is nice, we like to pile in the car and go to the Irvine Spectrum to walk around.

Parking garage elevators provide the opening entertainment




Run or skip to Jamba Juice for smoothies




Lucy and Levi waiting outside






Enjoy smoothies and stroll past the stores and fountains



Some days, we go on the carousel for a special treat






Head back to the car using Daddy as mode of transportation (or, if you're Levi, just dilly dally)

Costumes

This year, Nate was a knight. He bought the costume with his own money (which he earned "working" at my parents' store in Lynchburg). He kept telling everyone he was "a gallant knight," since that's what the package said.

Lucy was a 50's girl complete with spinny skirt (handed down from Cami).

The good and the not-so-good

In thinking about the purposes of my blog (keeping family in the know, recording our family events in lieu of scrapbooking, journaling my thoughts), I decided I'd like to do a "life snapshot" post every once in a while, describing the great things and the difficult things I'm dealing with. That way, I can look back months or years from now and see how God has worked in our family.

The good

• Jon and I are consistently on the same wavelength, communicate well, and enjoy being around each other. I love my husband.
• Sleep. Our kids go to bed easily/on time and sleep well, with night wakings rare. Nate and Lucy are quiet in the mornings, and generally, I am woken up by my alarm clock, not them.
• I actually love not having TV. (Jon might disagree.) I like that we mostly watch pre-approved movies (Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and Pete's Dragon are in the current rotation).
• Nate is behaving well at and liking school, and I really like his teacher. This might seem trivial, but when there have been some behavior issues in the past, good behavior is big.
• Our church. We love it and we love our friends there.
• AWANA, a kids ministry I help with, is so much easier for me personally this year. Nate loves Sparks, Lucy loves Cubbies, and Levi does well in the nursery, so I don't spend the whole evening worrying about the children.
• My one-day-per-week job. I enjoy it, and it brings in a little extra money.
  

The difficult

• Consistently, the most difficult times in our day are 7:30-8:00 a.m. (trying to get out of the house in time to get Nate to school), 12:00-1:00 p.m. (getting home from school when tired/hungry), and 5:30-6:30 p.m. (trying to cook dinner and keep hungry kids from fighting). Looking at this list, I know that I can eliminate almost all of the stress of these times if I would prepare better. Get up a bit earlier in the morning and/or prepare the children's clothes the night before. Prepare fun/interesting games for the post-school car ride (I already bring snacks, so the hunger really shouldn't have such an impact). Do dinner prep during nap/rest time in the afternoon.
• Nate and Lucy bicker a lot, and Levi is now putting himself into the mix. I feel like I am constantly instructing, constantly redirecting, constantly saying, "That was not a kind way to speak; try saying it this way instead." I suspect this is one of those seasons where I won't see the fruit from this particular training for a long time.
• I worry about our finances with property taxes due and Christmas coming.
• With busy schedules, I feel I rarely get to see my good friends outside of shared ministries. Again, I know this is probably just a season.

Maybe I should start with the difficult and end with the good; that way the post won't end on a depressing note!

Kidisms

Nate: "Maple syrup comes from maple trees. Regular syrup comes from syrup trees."

Lucy, at a fall festival last night when she wanted to play a game that was decorated with cartoon mummies: "I want to do that one--the one with the mamas."

Nate, asking about communion at church: "Are we going to have the Lord's Suffer today?"

Now he can never be a nose model

Levi took a tumble last night (well actually, he was pushed, but we aren't exactly sure what happened) into the couch or the ottoman (again, not sure), and it looks like he might have broken his nose! He cried but was acting fine within a few minutes.

A few minutes after the accident:



We called our nurse practitioner friend from church, who said they don't do much for broken noses, except perhaps a couple of months down the line if there are breathing issues or cosmetic concerns. So we just watched Levi for signs of concussion (lethargy, dilated pupils, etc.), which he didn't have at all. He wasn't phased at all and looks pretty good today.

Tonight:

Vegas

We went to Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday nights with Neil and Casey. We split up the kids a little bit to make it easier on our sweet friends who watched them (Nate and Lucy went to Amy's, bless her heart, and Levi went to Janel's). We stayed at a very swanky place (major sarcasm here), The Riviera. We slept in, ate good food, toured all the hotels, gambled a little bit, went to a movie (The Social Network--liked it), shopped (I browsed mostly), and had a wonderful, relaxing time.

We got back, and Levi was mad at me. He wouldn't hug me or let me hold him for the rest of the day. I remember Mama saying Greg did the same thing when she went on a trip once. What's up with that? :)

I took barely any pictures, but here are a few.

Pumpkin patch

We took the kids to their favorite October destination, the pumpkin patch, on Sunday.

Crafting Grandpa-style

The Home Depot near us has free kids' crafts/building projects the first Saturday of each month (perhaps it's a national Home Depot thing; I don't know). We've gone a couple of times, and Nate and Lucy love it. Last time, Nate made a periscope, Lucy a butterfly house. This month's project was fire boats.

Posting from work

I thought I'd write a quick update on my working-on-Mondays schedule. I'm sitting at my Monday desk in Long Beach right now. I think it's my fifth Monday coming in, and I love it. Jennifer does a great job caring for the kids, so I come home to a happy household. I've been getting home between 4:00 and 5:00, so I have time to make dinner and do normal evening stuff. I'm enjoying the work here, and the projects are small and quick so that I never feel stressed or have to leave something unfinished.

Levi counting

I just can't get enough of this boy.

Hello first fall sickness!

We're dealing with sickness this week. Levi got it first, but just a touch. Lucy's in the throes now. I fear Nate might get it next, so I kept him home from school. Our kids, especially Nate and Lucy, get stomach bugs bad.

It's a rainy, dreary, movie-watching day over here.

Favorite things

I just got a hankering to write down my favorite things about each of our children. :)

Nate - 5 years 5 months old today. His freckles (oh, how I love them). How one eye is darker than the other. How gentle he is with babies. How he draws (it's the typical 5-year-old stuff with sticks for fingers, etc., and I love it). His natural leadership tendencies (a struggle sometimes, but will be a strength too).

Lucy - 3 and a half years exactly (tomorrow). Her foodar (i.e., like radar but for food). When she gets in dance-y moods. Her belly. How I will walk in a room and see the lights off, fan on, and a teddy bear tucked in bed, because she put it down for nap.

Levi - 22 months. The language spurts that occur each week. His one dimple on his right cheek. How he wants to do everything Nate is doing, even when he doesn't really know what's going on. How he calls his pacifiers "foffies." His infectious laugh. His comedic moods. How he says Lucy's name ("Ee-ee") and now has enough language to tell me when she has done something wrong ("Mama! Ee-ee did dat"). And while I do not love his dilly dallying every.single.place. we go, I do think it's cute (sometimes).

Here's how they were all sitting the other day watching a video. Funny.

Perspective

Yesterday, Jon took the kids swimming for a couple of hours. (He is wonderful and brave, but not crazy: his parents went too.) I had the house to myself, and I put on some music, picked up toys, vacuumed, washed dishes, did some editing work--it was heavenly. It's funny how your perspective can change over the years. Before having children, I would have slightly (or more than slightly) resented the housework, the duties. But now, if I get to do those things in an empty house, it's like my greatest wish has come true.

What has changed? The work is still the same. So I guess I've changed, and so has my life. Things are way crazier and way less about me. That's a good thing!

Beep beep

I honestly don't know where he learned it, but Levi makes a truck-like "backing up" noise when he walks in reverse. :)

Today

Here's Nate today at Living Word, where the kids sang during church for the annual church-school picnic. I took video of the last part of the song, but they sang the whole thing.

Levi talking video

My favorite is "Find it!"

Cold showers

I haven't blogged about the "cold shower treatment" yet. Here's the gist of it: our usual discipline tactics were not very effective with Lucy. They would maybe have a momentary impact, but apparently she didn't care enough about the consequences to stop the tantrums, fit-throwing, and disrespectful words. We talk about how God wants us to act with gentleness, self control, respect for authority, etc. She is just having a really hard time. Recently, she kept throwing a fit about something (probably clothes-related), and Jon told her if she threw one more fit, he was going to put her in the shower with cold water. Within a minute, she was throwing another fit. Jon calmly but firmly took her to the shower, clothes and all, and held her under cold water for about 10 seconds. She hated it (of course). After he turned the water off, he dried her off, held her, and prayed with her. She was like a different child--humbled, calm, and happy for the rest of the day.

Since that day, I have had to do the shower treatment with her several more times (it probably comes out to about once a week now that I think about it). She really hates it. But she comes out of it so much better. And I have found that I am able to stay calm and matter-of-fact with her about it, making sure I count out loud to 10 while she's in the water, so she can understand I'm under control and not doing it out of anger. Afterward, I make sure we talk about why we had to do it, then pray with her.

So that's the cold shower explanation. It may sound cruel to some people, but when you're dealing with a spirited child for whom regular discipline has little effect, you have to find something!

Lucy

AWANA starts on Wednesday, and Lucy is SO excited to be in Cubbies. I'm sure she's going to do well. She's very enthusiastic about learning the first few verses she needs to know.



I got a few dresses on sale for her and showed her this one today. She loved it and called it her ballerina dress. It's a testament to how much she loved it that she wanted to put it on right away. Lucy and clothes-wearing do not usually go well together.




This week has been pretty good with Luce. We're talking about how she can ask God for strength to help her keep under control when she feels like throwing a fit about her clothes or shoes. It's working a bit... and so are the cold showers. (Have I blogged yet about the cold showers???)

Funk

Ug. Sometimes I just get in a blogging funk and don't have anything to write about. I'm feeling a little busy and out of sync getting used to the new routine of school/Levi's therapy/weekly obligations. Oh, but I did have my first "Monday work day" this week, and it went well. The kids love Jennifer, so it's easy to have her over and not think a second thought while she's caring for them.

Here's Lucy last night. She was doing some sort of snow-angel dance on the kitchen floor.